Blassreiter Episode 18 (of 24) (Mania.com)

Mixing the big action sequences with political intrigue and character moments, Blassreiter kills another twenty minutes of my life.

What They Say:Victor is pressured to get the situation under control, and deploys Joseph, whose enhancement procedure has only just been completed. Meanwhile, Amanda and Hermann vow to avenge the deaths of their comrades, and face off against Wolf and his gang of Demoniacs. Substantially outnumbered, Amanda and Hermann are cornered when the enhanced and rampaging Joseph appears on the scene and starts to slaughter the Demoniacs. The massacre continues amidst Joseph’s hallucinatory manifestations of desperation, fear, and resentment.

What We Say:Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)With the eighteenth episode of Blassreiter, I tried something a little different after it was over. Instead of digging in to write about it right away, I walked away for twenty minutes and watched another episode of Hakugei: Legend of the Moby Dick. After that, I sat down and thought about Blassreiter for a few minutes to really figure out what my impressions of the show are. This episode once again to me showcased the lack of vision that the series has as it does things without what seems like any real plan to it.

The last couple of episodes have had a significant shift in the story by introducing the Zwolf organization and all the Knights Templar material to give it a bit more weight. Joseph’s undergone some radical treatments which times out nicely to Hermann’s arrival and the growing number of Demoniac attacks that are going on these days. With Hermann on the run with the Triple-6 bike now and dealing with the Apocalypse Knights, it’s the perfect time for the new Joseph to come out and do some battle. This is something that Hermann really wants as he’s got to settle the score with this guy over Malek and other issues. This provides for some of the better action in the show which is once again the only true selling point to it.

But wait, Blassreiter decides to play a new angle this time around. With the growing number of appearances of the Demoniacs in Germany, it’s now time for the international community via the United Nations to get involved. With the surrounding countries fearing possible infestations and the likely probably of Germany collapsing, it doesn’t take much convincing to have an multinational force approved to go into Germany to help stabilize things, especially after some of the recent things come to light in the meeting. What is interesting is that the force going in is being done in a way that transfers the sovereignty of the country to the multinational force. That scares the crap out of the German ambassador for good reason but there’s not much he can do about it. The sudden introduction of the larger international concerns is yet another area where Blassreiter feels like it’s just pulling story ideas out of a hat.

The rest of the episode brings in various little bits of character and plot “development” as Beatrice deals with Xargin a little and Wolf becomes determined to take down the remaining members of XAT that continue to thwart him so. What’s problematic is that once again, towards the end of the episode they bring in some new characters and expand on things with more back story that doesn’t feel too terribly connected to anything else since the start. With Sasha having come in during the last few episodes and the introduction of Zwolf and all that it entails, adding more simply comes across as the wrong thing to do.

In Summary:Blassreiter is almost draining to watch these days and it’s entirely forgettable afterwards. While it’s easy to complain about formulaic shows that run through standard plot devices, at least they do provide for something a bit more memorable in the long run. Blassreiter is still very convoluted and without a clear and sharp vision as to what it’s all about. With a mess of characters and a storyline that doesn’t seem to have any serious focus or strong characters to push it through, it’s the kind of show that you’d imagine being canceled very early on in a US TV season. It’s a rare show that has me feeling this apathetic and it’s almost a little startling at times. It’s beyond a car wreck at this point and I’m simply wondering if they’ll figure out what they want to do at the end. At the same time, I’m afraid to see an advertisement then for season 2…